Matthew Ball, Xbox’s chief strategy officer, said at The Game Business Live that the company “shed millions of subscribers over the span of a few months” after the increase, giving rare public detail on a service whose membership figures have usually been disclosed only selectively. Microsoft does not publish regular Game Pass subscriber data, leaving investors, developers and players to infer the scale of its subscription business from occasional corporate updates and executive comments.
The admission marks a significant moment for Xbox’s strategy. Game Pass has been central to Microsoft’s attempt to reshape gaming around recurring revenue, cloud access and day-one availability of major titles. The 2025 price increase tested that model by asking users to pay far more at a time when household entertainment budgets were under pressure and rival platforms were competing aggressively for engagement.
Ball said Microsoft later “corrected that offering” by cutting Game Pass Ultimate to $23 a month in April 2026, one of the first visible moves under Xbox CEO Asha Sharma. The revised price remains higher than the level in place before the 2025 hike, but Xbox executives have argued that the service has been repositioned with a different value proposition and a tighter focus on what subscribers actually use.
A major part of that reset has been a rethink of Call of Duty inside Game Pass. Microsoft’s decision to stop placing new Call of Duty releases into the subscription library was presented by Ball as a change that resonated with users, suggesting the company is trying to reduce the financial strain created by putting its most valuable franchises into a fixed monthly bundle. The franchise remains one of gaming’s biggest commercial assets, and its treatment inside Game Pass has been closely watched since Microsoft completed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
The subscriber losses also underline the difficulty of valuing Game Pass from the outside. Microsoft said in 2024 that Game Pass had 34 million members, a figure that included accounts converted from Xbox Live Gold into Game Pass Core. That tier is now known as Game Pass Essential. The company has not said how many subscribers it had immediately before the 2025 price increase, how many cancelled after the change, or how many returned after the April 2026 reduction.
The episode has unfolded alongside a wider attempt to steady Xbox after a period of uneven messaging on hardware, exclusives and multi-platform releases. Sharma has pledged to reset the business and rebuild confidence among players, developers and internal teams. Ball’s appointment as chief strategy officer added an outside gaming industry analyst to the leadership group at a point when Xbox is trying to balance subscription growth with console relevance and software profitability.
That balance remains delicate. Game Pass offers Microsoft a recurring billing relationship with players, but the economics depend on retaining enough subscribers while funding a steady pipeline of high-cost titles. Price rises can lift average revenue per user, but the 2025 backlash showed that a sharp increase can quickly erode scale. For developers, the uncertainty affects how Game Pass deals are valued, particularly when subscription inclusion may replace or reduce traditional sales.
Xbox is now signalling a stronger role for console exclusives after years of emphasising broad access across devices. At the Xbox Games Showcase, Microsoft said Gears of War: E-Day, scheduled for October 2026, and Clockwork Revolution, planned for 2027, would be console exclusives on Xbox. Ball has also promised a more reliable pipeline of exclusive titles, a message aimed at players who felt the brand had weakened its identity by moving more games across rival platforms.
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